Draft Grades and Withholding Judgment

From my article at WorldMag.com

“With the first pick in the 2012 NFL draft, the Indianapolis Colts select Andrew Luck, quarterback, Stanford University.” With this sentence last Thursday evening the National Football League’s annual collegiate player draft commenced. Seven rounds and 253 total selections later it concluded, and at that point the analysts and pundits began doling out their “draft grades”—those subjective evaluations given to the quality of each team’s player haul.

Letter grades are assigned to each team. “Winners” and “losers” of the draft are declared. All within 24 hours of the draft’s completion. In the coming years these drafted players will be judged against these grades, these assumptions of what they will become. A bunch of 21- and 22-year-olds are signed, sealed, and better deliver, or else.

Seems premature judgments about future value are the order of the day.

But should this really come as a surprise to those in the evangelical church? Do we not give snap “winner” and “loser” grades to key ministers and so-called “movements”?